Oil in Lake Malawi: Hamra analysing data

There could be oil and also gas both inside and outside the Lake Malawi as United Arab Emirates’ Hamra Oil Holdings Limited (HOHL) has hinted after its oil exploration using a full tensor gravity gradiometry (FTG) survey.

Chiza Mkandawire: There is hope

The London-based company Surestream Petroleum was the first to be granted a licence to explore for oil in Malawi in 2011 and it has a minority stakes in Hamra.

Then Hamra Oil joined with other three other companies, Rakgas of the United Arab Emirates, Pacific Oil and Gas of Singapore and the South African company SacOil have also been granted licences for prospecting.

A Lilongwe-based Hamra director Ben Chiza Mkandawire confirmed that the company has completed the first phase of oil exploration and they are still analysing the FTG data ahead of a possible seismic survey.

“What we have managed to get is giving us confidence that there are oil tracks in Lake Malawi,” Chiza-Mkandawire said as his company hired Bell GeoSpace—a world leader in FTGs—to carry out the study using an airplane that flew over the blocks covering Karonga, Rumphi, Nkhata Bay and Nkhotakota.

Chiza Mkandawire, however, said once full results of exploration are out, he was sure the Malawi Government—as the custodian of natural resources in the country—would make appropriate announcements.

Malawi government is yet to discuss the FTG results with Hamra Oil, according toSecretary for Natural Resources, Energy and Mining Ben Botolo .

Oil prospecting was delayed by a row with neighbouring Tanzania, which claims half of the lake, and of the potential oil reserves as its own.

But, as prospecting work takes off, locals are already worrying about how its discovery could change their lives.

More than 1.5 million Malawians living on the shores of the lake, which measures nearly 30 000 square kilometres, depend on fishing for their livelihoods.

Representatives of the oil industry say oil can be extracted without danger to the lake, which home to hundreds of fish species unique to that place, as well as a popular tourist attraction.

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57 thoughts on “Oil in Lake Malawi: Hamra analysing data”

Lake Malawi is one of the most beautiful lakes in the world, it should be pronounced a world heritage sight by the United Nations. I promise you the only people that will benefit from drilling oil in lake Malawi are the politicians and the oil companies. Lake Malawi is part of the Great Rift Valley and is a actually sitting on a seismic fault line. Removing oil and gas from a fault line is not a very clever thing to do, it could trigger major earthquakes by disturbing the weight distribution under the lake. A lot of licenses to drill the lake have gone to Chinese, some of which know nothing on the dangers, some have gone to big oil companies but even they can’t control nature. Look at Nigeria what a mess Shell have made of this, if the same event happened on Lake Malawi, the entire lake would be devastated, not for 1 day, not for 1 year but hundreds of years. And for what ? Money, paper Money !!!!!!!! If we want energy, we have hydro electric that comes from the lake, its clean and safe. We have sunlight for free that we can use solar, we have wind that we can generate power from and we can grow sugar to produce ethanol to power our cars, these are safe, environmentally friendly things we CAN do, we don’t need to destroy the only natural wonder we own. Don’t sell our future and our childrens future to some Politian and oil company, please don’t do it. This people working on this project, please stop your work and do something else, please get Green Peace to help us.

Note : we like fish from our lake.If the fish die we gonna starve nowhere to find (Tirapia saka) to fry it with oil by fire of gas stove. Its fine to become rich in a such way we can say it is a manner from our heavenly father.

Malawi ought to be clever about this and not allow being robbed blind. It is a well known fact that there is gas and oil on the Tanzania side and that with USA help, TZ is capable of drilling for it even horizontally! That technology exists. Were this to happen, any delays to start exploiting may eventually lead to resource drying up having been captured from the TZ side.

Aaaaa,za kuba basi,bring out kayerekera invoices first,and let the nation know how much we have out of uranium sales since the mine was opened.or else no oil deal in this country,the whites are enjoying our resources in the west and they call us poor and withhold the donation . What is that? a pitala muthalika kodi mesa mumati ndinu ophuzira kwambiri inu,munaphuzira kuti mudzidzabera mfuko lanu lomwe eeti?mmmxxx

When are we going to realize that fresh water is more valuable than any amount of oil, and it is growing in value each year as countries are moving towards droughts, climate change, and water wars. With the world’s 9th largest fresh water lake, Malawi is already sitting on a gold mine…until we pollute it with oil spills and drilling toxins. Nigeria is a good example of what not to do. The Niger Delta is now one of the most polluted places on the planet. Is this what we want for Malawi?

Ife chindege chimauluka Ku Karonga we don’t need it.We don’t want anybody bringing his equipment looking for the dark liquid in our beautiful lake.Kagwereni uko ndi ma oil exploration.So Pitala has silenced Ben with this job?.koma Malawi is a dog country.
kukumbakumba Ku Karonga kukubweretsa Zindindindi.We never had zindindindi when we were growing up but now it is the order of the day.Chikayerekera has not changed the lives of Malawian apart from raising the cost of living in Karonga ndi kubweretsa uhule pa Karonga.Alot of prostitutes are stuck in Karonga looking for Kayerekera money.

This project should be put on hold. Malawians should not be taken for granted. Projects like this should not be pursued without the consent of the house of parliament. Lake Malawi is the largest fresh water body in the world, not in square meter size but in depth and this is why more than 500 variety of fish find a great safe heaven in this lift valley crack. The whole world values this lake as a model of the planet earth and yet the custodians themselves can’t appreciate this fact. This is dirty politics being played here. Malawians will be distracted by facts/politics of owning the lake over Tanzania and trying to play tough so that citizens can see you politicians as the right ones for the nation, But have you at any God’s given time ever asked Malawians what they prefer between the local fish with their fresh water against your proposed oil extraction?? We are just watching you. Next time, we will see you on the other side of the opinion after you get ditched by the people you think you are serving now. You are just being used remember. Let your Malawi get what is right for them for now and in future. Don’t be selfish and so don’t sell our fish. MALAWIANS, PLEASE GET UNITED BY SAYING NO TO THIS PROJECT.

this things will nat benefit e ordinary Malawians at all,so, stop fooling people here. How many people are benefiting from ur so called natural resources? Don’t worry, when Jesus comes, u gona answer all these mess!

I agree,stop this no sense,if during tobacco selling season the kwacha gets strength why kayerekera makes no difference?????? Who is eating the money,shaaaaaa paradin tell who do u give money to other wise we as a nation we closing this our mine jst remove your machinery

Hey there Mtambo, Trapence, Mwalubunje,, Kwataine et al, after 13th, this should be your next assignment. See to it that every person in the mentioned areas is well civic educated on this thing. Moses Mkandawire, kugona tulo ngooo cala ku Nyika uko. Jesse Puwa2 at Linia radio, please set up mobilization programs ASAP.

Before considering oil exploration let’s talk about kayelekera uranium mine can the dpp led government declare how much as a country we realized from the mining works and how much bingu wa muntharika benefited then we will talk
Malawians tisapuse pliz oil mining will make lake malawi polluted and Ma benefits ake sitidzawaona Koma our dirty politicians will be rich, ngati zikubedwa ndalama za nac zogulira Ma arv what more za oil , apm will die the richest president in the world.
Please let’s look for other alternatives and not oil
Stupid apm resign please

It looks lucrative to the poor Malawi nation.But looking at how the Dpp led government connived with Paladin Africa to exploit Malawians at Kayelekera on Uranium,how they are handling corruption cases of the cash/Nac/Mulhakhogates etc, it is clear that this government is incapable.Otherwise let the above mentioned ills be the litmus for the current dpp to prove their leadership skills/perfomance.

I think it is not appropriate to go on another mineral exploration while there is still mist over the paladin contract where politicians were given some kickbacks while the masses were suffering realising nothing from the production of uranium and yet the goodalls and the Muthatikas were busy enjoying a shady deal they signed.

Malawians, you must understand great rift valley oil exploration. This oil will benefit Malawi mpakana zidzukulu zonse kumwalira. This is our gold mine let us support government on this venture, rift oil is inside rocks not in water. Our lake is safe forever, what will make Malawi rich and economically independent ndi miyala yimeneyi…. Achina gold kapena diamond tilibe lets utilise our oil. make sure the money goes directly to the people basi tavutika mokwana.

Hey oil n gas how much is it worthy? Thousands of malawian based alongside the lake who depend on fishing are not even there. They are in south africa kuzisaka.Lialistically fish can be grown anywhere in the country. Don’t jock oils gas ha its malawis’ bright future.go head with oil owenga mafuta satuwa baba.

Bring to gvt solutions not problems. Technology is way high and the gvt and you people should bring solutions otherwise it’s yr country and yr relatives who will remain poorer and poorer. Rich and poor situations will always be there, even in the time of Jesus, the situation was as it is today ( rich and poor).

Please do not even think of drilling oil and gas on lake Malawi. If you want drill onshore only. If tikudalira bonya pakali pano. What do you think will happen to Malawians if bonya were to be wiped out? Do you think bonya can withstand fracking activities?

Please do not just start things that have lasting negative impact on Malawians.

Colleagues, yes, we need to utilise our resources so perhaps many in the dire poverty can be lifted up and off. But lets face it, we do not have such leaders to manage these things. I dont mean we lack technocrats nor do I mean we lack good laws and policies. I mean our leaders ARE DOGS.

Without good leaders this oil which ought to bring some improved welfare to the populace will equally bring so much suffering that the country has never known. Believe it, we are better off with this oil lying idle deep in our lake.

With this oil our DOG politician will bring us fights, war and untold suffering. Infact enviromentally and ecological wise we will suffer too. It can never be argued and trusted that because one man is good on EIA then all will be well. Never. Infact even if all men and women were good at EIA with the DOGISH politicians still in place, nothing can be guaranteed.

I fear for our beautiful lake, I fear for our fish species. Before we know it everybody will be shooting everybody. The poor will get poorer and the DOGS richer and richer. I bait it, issueing the licence was bad. WE ARE BETTER OFF WITHOUT THIS OIL. Atleast we can still eat some fish from it. After that we will even miss JUST A SMELL OF IT.

This is not Saud Arabia, its not Dubai. Here oil is like Nigeria, Delta State, its like DRC. Gold in Seira Leone and Ivory Coast. The licence should not have been issued.

Explore more of the oil and gas reserves outside the Lake than inside it. we have always been proud of our Lake. Only clean and environmental friendly means of extracting the oil and gas from the Lake can be in the best interest of all Malawians.

it well take 5-7yrs to exploit ze oil…
as a natural resource it dors not belong to givt or a co but mlw &depends of what liyalties the exploration co will pay &accountability &transparency.
i have worked in oil rich countrues in ze gulf abd know sbit about the industry.
marine life cud be affected ivrr time is safety measures not in place and managed well !

my fellow malawias, we all know that Malawi to be beautiful nation because of lake malawi due to flesh water in it and all kinds of fish. And now wat is it? Is just matter off creating wars in our beautiful land.

I had to research the full tensor survey, glad this company is environmentally conscious. I have known Ben Chiza as a man who believes in the future of Malawi, congratulations and continue with the good work you are doing. This will open up opportunities and create more jobs and businesses for Malawi, now thats activism.

Ben go back to University(First degree) and finish your studies then you can talk. How come you always want to comment on everything? People like me who have knowledge of oil and gas we are quite but you just want to people your useless mouth.